Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-30
2003-01-07
Urban, Edward F. (Department: 2685)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S421000, C455S432300, C455S414200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06505048
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed, in general, to wireless communication systems and, more specifically, to a system and method for selectively disabling the transmission of information concerning the location of a wireless mobile station.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Reliable predictions indicate that there will be over three hundred million (300,000,000) cellular telephone customers worldwide by the year 2000. Within the United States, cellular service is offered by cellular service providers, by the regional Bell companies, and by the national long distance operators. The enhanced competition has driven the price of cellular service down to the point where it is affordable to a large segment of the population.
The current generation of cellular phones is used primarily for voice conversations between a party using a subscriber handset (a wireless mobile station) and another party using the same type of subscriber handset. The voice conversations take place through the wireless network. A smaller number of wireless mobile stations are data devices, such as personal computers (PCs) equipped with cellular/wireless modems. Because the bandwidth for a current generation wireless mobile station is typically limited to a few tens of kilobits per second (Kbps), the applications for the current generation of wireless mobile stations are relatively limited.
However, this is expected to change in the next (or third) generation of cellular/wireless technology, sometimes referred to as “3G” cellular/wireless, where a much greater bandwidth will be available to each wireless mobile station (e.g., 125 Kbps or greater). The higher data rates will make Internet applications for wireless mobile stations much more common. For instance, a 3G cell phone (or a PC with a 3G cellular modem) may be used to browse web sites on the Internet, to transmit and receive graphics, to execute streaming audio and/or video applications, and the like. In sum, a much higher percentage of the wireless traffic handled by 3G cellular systems will be Internet protocol (IP) traffic and a lesser percentage will be traditional voice traffic.
The availability of greater bandwidth is making new features available for wireless mobile stations. One of the new features that has begun to appear in wireless mobile stations is the global positioning system (GPS) unit. GPS is a well known satellite based system for determining the geographic location of a transmitter in terms of latitude and longitude. A GPS unit in a wireless mobile station is capable of receiving signals from several GPS satellites and determining the location of the wireless mobile station to within a few meters.
Information from a GPS unit concerning the location of a wireless mobile station in terms of latitude and longitude may be displayed on the display unit of the wireless mobile station. Location information from the GPS unit may be very useful to the user of the wireless mobile station. For example, if the user of the wireless mobile station were to get lost in a wilderness area, the GPS unit in the wireless mobile station could give the user his exact location. If the user were to witness an automobile crash or other similar accident in a rural area where there are no street names, the user could call for assistance and give the exact location of the accident. If the user were to be involved in an accident or emergency, the user could call an emergency number such as 911 and the GPS unit in the wireless mobile station would give the exact location of the mobile station.
The location of a wireless mobile station may also be of interest to the operator of the wireless network. If the operator of the wireless network wishes to check the signal strength that the wireless mobile stations are receiving from the base station transmitters, it would be advantageous to the operator to know the exact distance of each of the wireless mobile stations to the nearest base station transmitter. To obtain this information the operator could send a signal to each individual wireless mobile station to ask each GPS unit to transmit to the operator the exact location of the wireless mobile station in which the GPS unit is located.
A GPS unit is a specific example of a position locating system that is capable of locating a wireless mobile station. Other types of position locating systems exist that are also capable of locating a wireless mobile station.
Many users of wireless mobile stations will not want their location to be available to the operator of the wireless network (or to any other party). Many users believe that the exact location of their wireless mobile station as determined by a position locating system is private information and is not to be divulged to any party without the user's consent. As the number of wireless mobile stations with a position locating system increases over time, there will very likely be an increase in the number of users who desire to control the disclosure of the location of their wireless mobile station.
Therefore, in a wireless mobile station of the type having a position locating system that is capable of determining the location of the wireless mobile station, there is a need for an apparatus and method for selectively disabling the transmission of information concerning the location of the wireless mobile station. Because there will be instances when the user of the wireless mobile station will want the location of the wireless mobile station to be transmitted, there is also a need for a user to have the ability to selectively transmit the location of the wireless mobile station to authorized parties. This is especially true in cases where an emergency exists and the user wants his or her location known immediately.
In situations where the wireless mobile station has been lost or stolen, there is a need for the user to have a code stored in the wireless mobile station that can be used to cause the wireless mobile station to transmit its location to the nearest base station. In such cases the user would contact the base station operator and give the user's code to the base station operator. Then the base station operator would transmit the code to override the location privacy feature and locate the wireless mobile station. After the user had recovered the lost or stolen wireless mobile station, then the user would change the code and maintain the privacy of the location of the wireless mobile station as before.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To address the needs described above, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide, for use in a wireless mobile station of the type having a position locating system that is capable of determining the location of the wireless mobile station, an apparatus and method for selectively disabling the transmission of information concerning the location of the wireless mobile station.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide control circuitry in a wireless mobile station comprising a controller and a memory unit having a location privacy flag in which a value set in the location privacy flag determines whether information concerning the location of the wireless mobile station is to be transmitted.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a directory of authorized telephone numbers in a wireless mobile station that are authorized to receive information concerning the location of the wireless mobile station.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a directory of emergency telephone numbers in a wireless mobile station that are always automatically authorized to receive information concerning the location of the wireless mobile station.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide control circuitry in a wireless mobile station capable of causing the wireless mobile station to transmit either a null code or a null message that indicates that information concerning the location of the wireless mobile station is not being transmitted.
It is also an object of the present inventi
Herle Sudhindra P.
Moles Bryan J.
Iqbal Khawar
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
Urban Edward F.
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